Christmas films are like cracker toys. We’re disappointed if we don’t get one, disappointed if we do get one and after 24 hours they’re largely forgotten.

Dean Spanley (U) is different – a charming yet bonkers tale of paternal grief, canine reincarnation and rather too many bottles of Imperial Tokay, the Hungarian dessert wine formerly dispensed only by royal command.

Set in Edwardian England, it tells the tale of grieving father Fisk Senior, his exasperated son and a visit to an Indian mystic that unexpectedly changes their lives, and there are three reasons why you should see it.

First, Fisk Senior is played by Peter O’Toole, which is reason enough to watch any film. Second, it’s about a Tokay-obsessed vicar – Dean Spanley – who thinks he’s a dog; and third, the film provides the perfect opportunity to explore its charming East Anglian locations.

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Start in the Cambridgeshire town of Wisbech, home of O’Toole’s cantankerous old curmudgeon, where you’ll find an undiscovered Georgian treasure that makes Bath look like an overrated tourist trap.

Strolling along North Brink, an elegant street of grand merchants’ houses, in that watery fenland light, it’s easy to see why film-makers love the place. Fronting the River Nene, the parade was described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “one of the most perfect Georgian streets of England”, and it is dominated by the splendid Peckover House – Fisk Senior’s home in the film (01945 583463, www.nationaltrust.org.uk ; call for details of special behind-the-scenes tours).

The austere frontage hides an unexpectedly ornate interior of panelled walls, extravagant mouldings and Georgian mantelpieces.

If you’ve got time, visit the Wisbech & Fenland Museum (01945 583817, www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk ) for a glimpse of the manuscript of Dickens’s Great Expectations and Napoleon’s breakfast service, captured at Waterloo, before nipping into the Red Lion, back on North Brink, for a pint of the local Black Dog, named after Black Shuck, the hellhound rumoured to prowl these parts.

Past King’s Lynn and along the north Norfolk coast lies the magnificent home of the film’s cricket-mad Indian aristocrat, the Nawab of Ranjiput – best line: “Reincarnation? I don’t go in for it much myself. I mean, I’m not going to do much better next time round.” In reality, the Nawab’s palace is Holkham Hall (01328 710227, www.holkham.co.uk ), the grand Palladian home of the Earls of Leicester.

Even if you’ve never visited before, the vast estate and its wild beach – ideal for exercising dogs and people who used to be dogs – will be familiar from films such as Shakespeare in Love and The Duchess, and ITV’s Kingdom. If you’re at Holkham at lunch time, try the roast pheasant with confit of cabbage in the estate pub, The Victoria (01328 711008).

Final stop is Norwich, for a stroll through the cathedral cloisters, but if you’re thinking of rounding the day off with a glass of Imperial Tokay, think again. Last week, one of the few remaining bottles of this mystical tipple sold at Christie’s for £1,955 – proof that its aficionados are indeed barking mad.

Dean Spanley is on general release

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